The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature

Volume 1: 800-1558

Edited by Rita Copeland

Description

The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature (OHCREL) is designed to offer a comprehensive investigation of the numerous and diverse ways in which literary texts of the classical world have stimulated responses and refashioning by English writers. Covering the full range of English literature from the early Middle Ages to the present day, OHCREL both synthesizes existing scholarship and presents cutting-edge new research, employing an international team of expert contributors for each of the five volumes.

OHCREL endeavours to interrogate, rather than inertly reiterate, conventional assumptions about literary 'periods', the processes of canon-formation, and the relations between literary and non-literary discourse. It conceives of 'reception' as a complex process of dialogic exchange and, rather than offering large cultural generalizations, it engages in close critical analysis of literary texts. It explores in detail the ways in which English writers' engagement with classical literature casts as much light on the classical originals as it does on the English writers' own cultural context.

This first volume, and fourth to appear in the series, covers the years c.800-1558, and surveys the reception and transformation of classical literary culture in England from the Anglo-Saxon period up to the Henrician era. Chapters on the classics in the medieval curriculum, the trivium and quadrivium, medieval libraries, and medieval mythography provide context for medieval reception. The reception of specific classical authors and traditions is represented in chapters on Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, the matter of Troy, Boethius, moral philosophy, historiography, biblical epics, English learning in the twelfth century, and the role of antiquity in medieval alliterative poetry. The medieval section includes coverage of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate, while the part of the volume dedicated to the later period explores early English humanism, humanist education, and libraries in the Henrician era, and includes chapters that focus on the classicism of Skelton, Douglas, Wyatt, and Surrey.

The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature

Volume 1: 800-1558

Edited by Rita Copeland

Author Information

Rita Copeland, Rosenberg Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Classical Studies, English, and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania

Rita Copeland is Rosenberg Chair in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. Her fields of research include the history of rhetoric, literary theory, and medieval learning. She is a founder of the journal New Medieval Literatures, and co-founder of Toronto Series in Medieval and Early Modern Rhetoric. In addition to many articles, she has published the following books: Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages (1991), Criticism and Dissent in the Middle Ages (1996), Pedagogy, Intellectuals and Dissent in the Later Middle Ages (2001), Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475 (with Ineke Sluiter) (2009), and The Cambridge Companion to Allegory (with Peter Struck) (2010).

Contributors:

Suzanne Conklin Akbari, University of TorontoWinston Black, Assumption CollegeCharles F. Briggs, University of VermontJames P. Carley, York University and University of KentRita Copeland, University of PennsylvaniaIan Cornelius, Yale UniversityDallas G. Denery II, Bowdoin CollegeMarilynn Desmond, Binghamton UniversityRobert R. Edwards, Pennsylvania State UniversityAndrew Galloway, Cornell UniversityCam Grey, University of PennsylvaniaAlfred Hiatt, Queen Mary University of LondonAlastair Minnis, Yale UniversityAgnes Juhasz-Ormsby, Memorial University Ad Putter, University of BristolNicola Royan, University of NottinghamCathy Shrank, University of SheffieldJames Simpson, Harvard UniversityEmily Steiner, University of PennsylvaniaDaniel Wakelin, University of OxfordWinthrop Wetherbee, Cornell UniversityJames Willoughby, University of OxfordMarjorie Curry Woods, University of Texas at AustinNicolette Zeeman, Cambridge UniversityJan M. Zioklowski, Harvard University

The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature

Volume 1: 800-1558

Edited by Rita Copeland

Reviews and Awards

"Although targeting medievalists and students of English literature, the discussions concerning transmission and reception are valuable to anyone interested in how English literature adapted and engaged with classical literature." --Kathleen Burt, Classical Journal Online

"Oxford's monumental, five-volume venture (OHCREL, each with its own editor/ editors, 2012-) promises "the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of the reception of classical literature in English." OHCREL began with volumes 3 (1690-1790), 4 (1790-1890), then 2 (1558-1660). Volume 1 (800-1558) is the most ambitious to date, aiming for coverage of the classics' impact over a period of some 760 years. In 28 chapters, scholars explore the full array of education, philosophy, historiography, Trojan epics (mostly Virgil's), and poetry (mostly Ovid's) and numerous Latin and English authors. Copeland (Univ. of Pennsylvania) surveys the multilayered material in her brief introduction and contributes three essays on the liberal arts in medieval teaching. Gower, Lydgate, and Chaucer dominate the 14th century, leaving only four chapters for "early humanists" John Skelton, Gavin Douglas, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey." --G. Divay, Choice